VAIDYA, DEVINASINGH, NEHA2016-11-302016-11-30201348059http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/88413Abstract The present study entitled “Optimization of post-harvest treatments to extend the shelf-life of white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)” was conducted during 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 in the Department of Food Science & Technology, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan. Mushrooms, known as Ksumpa in Sanskrit and Khumbi or Kukurmutta in Hindi are simple form of plant life, which have been used by mankind as food and drug since time immemorial. They are not only a privileged class delicacy all over the world but are also the nutritive food especially suited to diabetes.Mushrooms are mainly marketed in fresh form due to their highly perishable nature and deteriorate within a day after harvesting due to its high respiration rate and delicate epidermal structure. Therefore, the present study was conducted to extend the shelf-life of button mushroom. The freshly harvested mushrooms were washed with different solutions of CaCl2, citric acid, KMS, and NaCl, and of their combinations, for 2 minutes and analyzed for best washing treatments. The mushrooms washed with three standardized washing treatments i.e. plain water washing, 0.5% KMS and 0.5% CaCl2 + 0.5% KMS + 0.5% NaCl were then packed with four packaging materials of varying thickness i.e. polypropylene, low density polyethylene, commercially used package, and paper punnet with shrink wrapping and stored at ambient (22+2 °C) and refrigerated (4+2 °C) conditions. During storage, different physical and biochemical parameters viz., weight loss by mushroom, moisture content, weight gain by absorber, degree of whiteness, total phenols, pH, respiration rate, visual and microbial observations were done. On the basis of visual as well as physico-chemical characteristics, the mushroom treated with 0.5% KMS and 0.5% CaCl2 + 0.5% KMS + 0.5% NaCl and packed in polypropylene (1500 gauze) was found to have good retention of colour, texture as well as better storage life of 3 days at ambient condition and 9 days at refrigerated condition. The mushrooms were then packed in polypropylene with different concentrations of moisture absorber (4, 8, 12 and 16 g) and were subjected to the storage period of 0, 3, 6 and 9 days at ambient and refrigerated conditions. Mushrooms packed in polypropylene pouches with 12 g absorber and stored at refrigerated condition showed best results up to 7 days of storage with respect to weight loss and visual sensory analysis. Quality of mushrooms was found to be maintained with moisture absorber irrespective of the storage conditions.enThesis